Is this psychological warfare on Iranâs part?
Wouldnât they be happier with rising oil prices, or am I missing something?
Saudi Arabia is rigging and manipulating the worldâs oil market to pay for their wahabbi jihad in Yemen. What a paragon of islamic virtue the land of the last saudi prophet is.
Thatâs a very good question, actually. I never really understood why oil tanked a few years ago in the first place, except that it seemed like an effort by Saudi Arabia to drive our shale oil producers out of business. It was kind of weird at the time and I still think it is to this day. Saudi Arabia supposed to be an ally so itâs weird, unless itâs just some generalized animus towards the west for interfering in middle eastern affairs.
I also had the thought that oil prices could be lowered to help China maintain their manufacturing dominance since everything they assemble has to be shipped there in the first place and then shipped back to the markets where the goods will be sold. But Iâm not sure about that. (I knowâŚwhy would other countries go along with that? Because they want/need cheap goods too).
anyhooâŚback to your original point: Iran is very smart and wily. They do things for a reason. And like any number of other countries, Iâm sure they sense weakness on the part of POTUS. They smell blood in the water, basically. 
Last month, members of OPEC agreed to pump an additional 1 million barrels of crude daily, a move that should help contain prices.
Remember, last week, Trump tweeted that he had just personally spoken to the Saudi King:
But OPEC had agreed to increase production on June 23, a week before the tweet. So Trump once again lies and falsely claims credit.
Other than the possible psychological effect on markets I fail to see how a 1 million barrel a day boost would appreciably affect world oil prices. It represents about a 1% dent in daily consumption.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/271823/daily-global-crude-oil-demand-since-2006/
Iran needs someone to coach them on proper deployment of irony.
If 1% is all it takes to get production over consumption then prices fall.
Itâs all about who controls the straights of Hormuz.
The US rings Iran with military bases, so He who controls the Straights of Hormuz controls the oil.
Hmmm ⌠the more the idiot-in-chief tweets, the higher prices go, and the more money Iran makes. Iâd say this falls under the category of âbrer rabbit and brer foxâ
On Wednesday he tweeted that OPEC is âdoing little to help,â adding that, âif anything, they are driving prices higher.â
Well, Iâm sure thatâll get an organization dedicated to keeping the price high to âhelpâ.
If Trump wants to reduce the cost of gasoline in the US, all he needs to do is issue an Executive Order banning the export of US crude oil and petroleum products whenever US gasoline prices exceeded $X.xx per gallon. Before Congress lifted the Carter-era restrictions on exporting US crude, local US oil gluts helped to reduce prices.
And since the US still bans the import of gasoline, exporting crude while jacking up the cost of US gasoline because of âlimited suppliesâ is a win-win for the oil companies.
What we need to realize is causing higher oil/gas prices is longstanding GOP policy and I believe was the real reason for the disastrous Iraq war.
The only effect on anything every time Dick Cheney shock his fist at Iran was that gas prices jumped $.50 at the pump. It happened so frequently and was so predictable the only rational conclusion is that Cheney wanted higher oil prices. In fact in my view the real reason for invading Iraq was that Saddam had been undercutting cartel attempts to fix the price and taking control of Iraqâs oil, the only thing Bush/Cheney bothered to secure when taking over Iraq, was too and did cause the price of oil/gas to raise significantly. Going back to the late 1980s, then VP George HW Bush actually went to Saudi Arabia to convince it to cut production so oil/gas prices would increase. To date, the only affect felt by Americans of Trump pulling out of the deal to keep Iran from having nuclear weapons is gas prices are $.50 to $.80 higher per gallon.
All that said, we need to realize that an important base to the GOP and therefore Trump is big oil that wants oil prices higher. Therefore of course what Trump is doing what he is doing with the intent of satisfying this GOP constituency and causing oil/gas prices to rise significantly.
It was sort of a perfect storm:
Commodity traders were speculating aggressively in oil, driving up prices significantly.
So, producers were glad to ramp up production, and new producers like tar sands and fracking became profitable- so they added to worldwide production.
However, the commodity demand became wildly out-of-touch with actual demand - and a huge glut developed. To make things worse, the increase in energy costs caused economies to slow down, reducing demand.
Some commodity traders, seeing oil prices dropping, immediately started selling their oil holdings in the hopes of recovering some of their investments before prices bottomed out. While at the same time, the oil producing nations found that their national budgets were now significantly higher than they could expect to cover with falling oil prices, so they increased production to try and cushion the blow to their economies- increasing oversupply.
Once speculation in the oil market dropped off, and crude production was finally reduced, oil prices stabilized and began to go up again.
[edited to fix indent glitch that hid some of my text]
Oil suffers from what economists call inelastic demand. That is, oil consumption tends to stay the same despite changing availability and corresponding price changes. That means very large price swings when consumption and production are even slightly mismatched. It also means spot traders are always on the edge on any looming issues.
Iran may have a point, although really it is a big picture issue. Mr. Trumpâs chaotic approach to trade and military policy generally (will Bolton get his Iran invasion?) is probably hurting us with the price of oil. I am sure Iranâs statements are self-serving and I would guess probably issued for internal political reasons.
The announcement of higher supply by OPEC isnât containing prices because Trumpâs rhetoric, withdrawing from the Iran nuclear dealing, pressing the world to abide by US sanctions in Iran plus the Venezuela situation are adding a risk factor to the market price.
The ONLY way to peel off Deplorable support for Racist-in-Chief is to crash the economy and raise gas prices, both of which are on the way. Even the reich-wing farmers heâs throwing to the wolves are still supporting him! I hope they are crushed and ruined. Think of all that wasteful Farm Bill Socialism $$ weâll save!